1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a household consumer product, such as a laundry appliance, with a retractable hanging element.
2. Description of the Related Art
The process of laundry care can include several steps, such as washing, drying, ironing, steaming, refreshing, and the like. Some of these steps are conducted in the laundry area, and others are performed outside the laundry area. Regardless, it is convenient to have a place to hang the clothing items before, during, and after these steps. Some people hang the clothing items on doorknobs, over the top of the door, on a separate hanging rack, or on other similar locations. However, some of the hanging locations are not meant for this purpose, and the clothing items are often not securely hung and tend to undesirably fall to the ground. The separate hanging racks are intended to be used for hanging, but they tend to be cumbersome, are inconvenient to store when not in use, and not dimensioned to optimize the space of the laundry area or other location where the laundry care is performed.
In an attempt to provide a hanging solution that does not require a significant amount of space, some hanging elements have been mounted to a laundry appliance, such as a conventional washing machine or dryer. Hanging elements mounted to the exterior of the laundry appliance, however, can be unsightly when not in use or difficult to manipulate between stored and use positions. Other hanging elements have been designed so as to slidably retract into the laundry appliance when not in use and slidably extend out of the laundry appliance when the hanging element is needed for hanging the clothing items. Even these hanging elements have disadvantages. For example, when the hanging element is slid to the retracted position, a proximal end of the hanging element must at least partially project from the laundry appliance so that the user can grasp the hanging element and pull it to the extended position. As a result, a user can accidentally bump into the hanging element when in the retracted position and thereby injure themselves and/or pull the hanging element further from the laundry appliance.